People of diverse religious backgrounds encounter each other daily in coffee shops, hospitals, classrooms, and around the dinner table. What might these encounters teach us about ourselves, our neighbors, or about God?

At an upcoming symposium, Sunstone West, sponsored by the Mormon publication Sunstone Magazine, the first plenary session will be dedicated to the topic of Mormon Studies at the GTU and the Academy. Included among the plenary speakers are GTU Dean and Professor of Christian Sprituality Arthur Holder, doctoral student Michael Reed, and alumna Sheila Taylor (Ph.D. '11) with Adjunct Professor Robert Rees moderating. Rees and Taylor are featured speakers throughout the symposium.

Tags:

Naomi Seidman, a scholar who specializes in Jewish culture and literature, will deliver Carleton College’s annual Forkosh Family Lecture in Judaic Studies and Religion on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Severance Great Hall. Entitled “The Marriage Plot: Sexuality, Secularization and the Emergence of Modern Jewish Literature,” Seidman’s lecture will explore how the secularizing trends of the 18th and 19th centuries worked through art and literature to influence Jewish sexual norms. This event is free and open to the public.

A recent article in Trusteeship (January/February 2013), the publication of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, outlined the return of religion and religious studies to many a higher education institution. The abstract for the article is below.

In a surprise announcement Monday, Pope Benedict XVI said he would resign this month after less than eight years in office. He's the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years, when Pope Gregory XII stepped down, and the first to have done so voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.

Sr. Marianna Farina, DSPT, participating in KQED's Forum on the topic, discussed potential sucessors and the future of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and worldwide.